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A quartet of centuries helped England plunder a record 506 for 4 on the opening day to put the tourists in command of their first Test appearance in Pakistan for 17 years.Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, who put on a 233-run opening stand, were joined by Ollie Pope and Harry Brook – the latter playing just his second Test – in posting hundreds on a remarkable day in which England’s run rate scarcely dipped below a run a ball as they became the first side to score 500 runs on day one of a Test.No sooner had Brook brought up his maiden Test fifty, and he surged towards his century by whipping Saud Shakeel for six fours in one over to almost all quarters of the ground. Brook reached his ton off just 80 balls after he and Pope had added 176 runs for the fourth wicket and, when bad light ended play, he remained not out on 101 with Ben Stokes unbeaten on 34.Crawley had threatened to become the first Englishman to score a hundred before lunch on the first day of a Test as he and Duckett set a solid foundation for their side, which had been laid low by a sickness bug just 24 hours earlier.Stokes was among the worst affected but fronted up for, and won, an all-important toss after England were only able to confirm that they had a fit XI two-and-a-half hours before the start. They were forced into just one change to their intended team, handing Will Jacks his Test debut for a still-recovering Ben Foakes, with Pope to take the wicketkeeping gloves.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The last time Crawley had played against Pakistan, he struck 267 to deliver on the promise of three half-centuries in 11 previous innings. A tumultuous stretch followed that knock in August 2020, with just a brace of fifties in 21 innings which followed 10 single-figure scores and two ducks among them bringing his place under increasing scrutiny.That was until his century in the drawn first Test against West Indies in Antigua in March this year, which seemed to set him up for the English summer, only for another unspectacular spell to ensue until his rapid unbeaten 69 off just 57 balls in September’s third and final Test against South Africa.Crawley’s latest innings was next-level speed-wise, however, as he perfectly merged England’s assertive approach under Brendon McCullum with the need to make the most of his time in the middle while some of his team-mates regained their strength.One of only four players in England’s original XI named on Tuesday to take part in an optional training session on match eve, Crawley opened with three fours off Naseem Shah so that England were 14 without loss in the most expensive first over of a Test in two decades.Haris Rauf, making his Test debut after 57 T20Is and 15 ODIs, entered the attack in the eighth over, but Crawley continued to find the boundary with back-to-back fours either side of the pitch in Rauf’s second over and, after 10 overs, the tourists had motored to 63 for 0.The last time Duckett played a Test, he fell for 5 and 0 at the hands of a rampant R Ashwin as England suffered a heavy defeat to India in November 2016 and he admitted thinking his Test career was over.Making his return six years later after an excellent Championship season for Nottinghamshire, Duckett looked assured, his fortuitous slash through third to bring up England’s fifty notwithstanding, as he reverse-swept then ramped Zahid Mahmood to the fence.Crawley brought up his half-century off just 38 balls, sweeping Zahid through fine leg for four, while England brought up their 100 in 13.5 overs and Duckett reached a run-a-ball fifty in the second hour.Save for a hearty appeal for lbw, which looked to be high with no functioning DRS in the third over to test the on-field not-out decision, and a slash off Rauf which went just wide of a slow-moving Mohammad Ali at mid-on to move into the 90s, Crawley’s innings was domineering. He had scored 17 fours by the end of the morning session as he and Duckett took England to lunch unscathed with 174 runs on the board.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Pakistan, missing the injured Shaheen Shah Afridi and fielding three other debutants alongside Haris, in right-arm seamer Ali, legspinner Zahid and middle-order batter Shakeel, looked toothless and needed a breakthrough. They eventually got there through Zahid and Rauf in the space of nine balls.On 99, Crawley managed to overturn his lbw dismissal playing around Naseem’s full delivery which rapped him low on the front pad but was shown to be heading down the leg side. Two balls later, Crawley’s deft punch through the covers brought up an 86-ball century, the fastest by an England Test opener and joint fifth-fastest overall.Duckett brought up his maiden Test ton with a pulled four off Rauf, a beaming smile spreading across Duckett’s face as he soaked up the applause. His stay was shortlived thereafter when he missed his reverse sweep of Zahid and was struck on the pad in line with off stump, although Pakistan had to review Joel Wilson’s not-out decision.So ended England’s highest Test opening stand against Pakistan and they went from 233 without loss to 235 for 2 when Crawley followed a short time later, done by Rauf’s reverse swing as the ball slid through the gate and took a deflection on to middle stump.Joe Root fell lbw to Mahmood for just 23, burning a review in a bid to overturn his dismissal before Pope and Brook forged on.Brook, who had pulled Zahid for six on the stroke of tea, helped himself to another six in the evening session when he muscled Rauf over deep midwicket. He brought up his fifty with a single in the next over moments before Pope raised his century working Agha Salman off his toes for one to reach the mark in 90 balls.Even when Pope fell to Ali, lbw on review to give Pakistan something to smile faintly about in the fast-fading light, Brook surged ahead with England’s quickest Test hundred now in his sights. He fell short of Gilbert Jessop’s 76-ball mark set in 1902, but slotted in at No. 3 behind Jonny Bairstow when he struck Naseem for a gorgeous cover drive for four.The fact that England still have the firepower of Jacks and fellow debutant Liam Livingstone to come on a batter-friendly pitch gave the hosts ever more to worry about overnight.

Quick Darcie Brown led a disciplined attack then fellow teenagerPhoebe Litchfield hit another half-century as Australia thrashed Pakistan at the Allan Border Field to wrap up the three-match women’s ODI series.Electing to bat in Brisbane’s sunny conditions, Pakistan struggled to fire in a must-win game two after losing the series opener by eight wickets in a rain-affected contest reduced to 40 overs per side. They were bowled out for just 125 after 43 overs with Brown snaring three wickets to lead a well-balanced attack.In reply, Australia powered to an effortless 10-wicket victory inside 20 overs with impressive 19-year-old Litchfield smashing 67 off 61 balls and Beth Mooney finishing 57 not out.Coming off her 78 not out on ODI debut, Litchfield struggled early against probing bowling from quick Fatima Sana before getting off the mark in style with a sweet cover drive.She was dominant from there and played mostly orthodox, but unleashed several scoop shots to showcase her range of strokes.Having made just one run in the series opener, Mooney was keen to make amends and started in style with a boundary off the first ball. She didn’t need to take risks and toyed with Pakistan’s struggling bowlers.Mooney was mostly overshadowed by Litchfield, who played with a maturity beyond her years to become the first Australian women’s batter to compile consecutive half-centuries in their first two ODIs.It was a major disappointment for Pakistan, who are still seeking an elusive victory against all-conquering Australia in any format.The series will conclude at North Sydney Oval on Saturday before a trio of T20Is to wrap up Pakistan’s first bilateral series in Australia since 2014.It was an improved performance from Australia’s quicks, who were notably wayward in the opening game in a push for extra swing.Seamer Kim Garth made her ODI debut for Australia and replaced Megan Schutt, who has a niggle with her knee and is being managed ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup.Garth opened the attack and bowled a maiden first up in an exceptional start. She continued to bowl a back of a length and found late swing during a tidy five-over spell during the first powerplay. Garth finished wicketless, but conceded just 13 runs from eight overs. She played 34 ODIs for Ireland from 2010-2018 before moving to Australia seeking full-time opportunities.Pakistan were unable to build partnerships with a number of their batters failing to capitalise on starts much like in game one.After opener Sidra Ameen fell in the second over, Muneeba Ali started slowly and had a reprieve when Litchfield dropped a chance at second slip before hitting Brown for a couple of powerful boundaries.Moving around the crease trying to disrupt the bowlers, Muneeba’s aggressive approach backfired when she miss-hit spinner Ash Gardner to cover point.Pakistan’s bid for a competitive total nosedived when skipper Bismah Maroof was trapped lbw to seamer Annabel Sutherland for 21.The burden again fell on veteran Nida Dar, who top-scored for Pakistan in game one with a half-century, and she had a reprieve on 16 when Brown dropped a return catch. But Dar’s luck ended on 24 when she was run out at the non-striker’s end after a touch from Garth in her follow through deflected onto the stumps.Pakistan fell away as their barren run against Australia continued.

Australia’s selectors have backflipped on their decision to leave out Travis Head in Nagpur by selecting him in Delhi because of his bowling ability. Matthew Kuhnemann has also leap-frogged Ashton Agar to make his Test debut as Australia select three specialist spinners and one fast bowler for the first time since 2017 with Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc both ruled unfit.Australia’s selector on tour Tony Dodemaide spoke to the media shortly before the toss in Delhi to explain the selectors’ decision-making. Having left Head out in Nagpur as a horses-for-courses selection due to his poor batting record on the subcontinent, and his struggles at the training camp in Bengaluru, Dodemaide explained that Head had been included in Delhi at the expense of Matt Renshaw because Australia felt they were missing a fifth bowling option in Nagpur.”Renners is really stiff,” Dodemaide said. “There’s no slight on him. He’s very much a valued player in our team planning moving forward. He was quite stiff, particularly in the first innings [in Nagpur]. So he hasn’t been dropped for those performances.”The key thing where we see the difference this time around is that Heady does offer quite a valuable option as a fifth bowler and that’s where we felt we were stretched in parts of the game in Nagpur and that fifth bowling option is something that we value, albeit another spinner. But we expect spin to dominate in any case.”

Ashton Agar struggling for form

Kuhnemann’s Test debut has come in extraordinary circumstances. Last week he was playing his first first-class match since October for Queensland at the MCG in Melbourne, having been biding his time as the second Queensland spinner behind Mitchell Swepson in their Sheffield Shield side.Kuhnemann was not selected in the initial India tour squad but flew into Delhi on Sunday as Swepson went home for the birth of his first child. Agar was picked as Australia’s second spinner in the XI in Sydney in the last home Test before the India tour and as the preferred left-arm orthodox spinner in the touring party.But Agar’s performance in Sydney against South Africa, and at the training camp in Bengaluru, meant that he was not a viable option to be picked in the first or second Test.”His red-ball game is not quite where he wants it to be,” Dodemaide said. “Matt Kuhnemann has come over and impressed. He got a chance in Sri Lanka, albeit in limited-overs form, he’s played well in domestic cricket this season and he’s impressed us in the nets. We just feel his style at the moment is more suited to these conditions.”Matthew Kuhnemann played 13 first-class matches before making his Test debut in Delhi•Getty Images

Kuhnemann made a similar shock ODI debut last year in Sri Lanka when Adam Zampa missed the tour on paternity leave.Australia have opted to not pick a second pace bowler for the first time since Chittagong in 2017 when Pat Cummins was the lone quick alongside Agar, Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe, although on that occasion that did have Hilton Cartwright’s medium pace.Boland was arguably Australia’s second-best bowler in Nagpur behind Todd Murphy but only bowled 17 overs for the Test. Australia’s selectors believe the conditions in Delhi make a second quick surplus to requirements.”It’s a bit unusual going the three spin and one quick,” Dodemaide said. “We feel the pitch here, the conditions, we feel that spin will dominate the game once again and from what we understand this pitch has been used three times already this year and there’s already substantial cracking in the areas where most of the game is going to be played. That’s the reason for going for the three spinners. The fifth bowler is important too.”We don’t have the seam bowling option of Cam on the table quite yet. We’re very confident and hope he’s continuing to progress and we expect him to be available for the third Test in Indore. That’s the context around selection for this one.”

Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc hopeful for Indore

Dodemaide defended the selectors’ decision to bring three players on tour who are not fit enough to be selected in the first two Tests. Josh Hazlewood is still battling an Achilles issue while Green and Starc were pushing to be fit for the second Test but neither were quite right with their respective finger injuries despite training fully on Wednesday.”We brought them over in the expectation they’d be available,” Dodemaide said. “Starcy and Greeny didn’t quite come up for this one. We fully expect them to be online for the third one.”Certainly if [Starc] was 100% we would have had a serious conversation about the bowling structure, about two [quicks] and two [spinners] as opposed to one [quick] and three [spinners]. Certainly, it’s great balance if you’ve got that seam bowling without shortening the batting with Greeny being available. That’s not the case and we deal with what you’ve got.”Cam’s been going through his return to play stuff. He hasn’t really completed all of what he was intended to do. He still hasn’t faced quick bowlers. He hasn’t done a lot of catching as well. He’s trained for quite some time. But there’s just enough reaction and discomfort there that it’s just not ready.”

One day after Gujarat Titans’ Yash Dayal conceded five sixes in the final over to Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh, the fast bowler’s father has revealed that he was consoled in the dressing room by his team-mates, led by the captain Hardik Pandya.Dayal spoke to his father late on Sunday night after the bowler conceded the highest number of runs (31) in the final over of a chase to lose an IPL game. He said that he he struggled to grip the ball due to wet conditions.”It was a nightmare yesterday,” Chandrapal Dayal told on Monday. “They made him [Yash] sit in the centre [in the dressing room] and consoled him. Later, there was [dance, music] and they spent some light moments with him.”He told me that somehow the ball was slipping out and he was not having a proper grip on the night as he missed his yorkers. Even he tried a slower one from the back of his hand, that too was smashed.”Nothing Yash Dayal tried worked for him in that last over•BCCI

Dayal plays domestic cricket for Uttar Pradesh, the same team as Rinku – the batter’s familiarity with the bowler’s plans may have helped him chase down the improbable final-over target. Chandrapal said the episode would make his son come out stronger.”He [Rinku] just had to smash every ball and they know each other well. It may have come handy for Rinku and it was simply not his [Dayal’s] day. Many great cricketers have gone through this.”These are the moments sport is made up of. Even in life you come across failures, it’s important to stand up stronger.”Dayal missed his yorker lengths on three occasions and paid the price as Rinku hit his first three full-tosses for sixes. After that, his half-tracker was tonked over long-on while his final delivery was flat-batted down the ground for six more. While the broadcasters’ camera showed the Knight Riders celebrating deliriously after the match, they also showed Dayal on his knees, wiping his forehead and being patted on his back by his team-mates. His coach Amit Pal said that Sunday was simply not Dayal’s day.”He bowls the yorker so well but could not get one last night,” Pal told . “Maybe he was done in by pressure. Maybe it was because at the other end, there was Rinku who knows him well since their junior camp days.”Dayal was signed by the Titans before IPL 2022 and played his part in the side winning the title last season. This season, he has been expensive and wicketless, conceding 14 runs in one over in his first game, 12 runs in one over in his second game, and 69 in four overs on Sunday.

Given his health ordeals in New Zealand and South Africa this winter, the inclusion of Jack Leach in England’s plans for their return to Test cricket against West Indies next month might initially have come across as something of a risk.This is, after all, a player who admitted fearing for his life when he contracted sepsis in Hamilton in November, and then fell so ill during England’s early weeks in South Africa that he still wonders whether he and his team-mates were early victims of the Covid-19 pandemic, before the global severity was known.”I guess we’ll never know,” Leach told reporters via videolink from England’s camp at the Ageas Bowl. “If you had those symptoms I had in South Africa now, you’d say this is definitely coronavirus. But I feel healthy and fit, and I want to stay that way as much as possible.”But in the current circumstances, with the UK bracing for a second wave of Covid-19 cases following the government’s lifting of lockdown restrictions, the logic of Leach’s inclusion suddenly makes more sense.After all, there can be few places in the country safer than England’s bio-secure training camp at the Ageas Bowl, especially for a man who has suffered since the age of 14 from Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that can require immunosuppressant medication to keep it under control.”It’s definitely more strict here than Bournemouth beach,” said Leach, after a week of soaring temperatures resulted in more than half a million sun-seekers descending on the Dorset coast. “It’s exactly that, a bubble, with social distancing and masks. We’ve been spending lots of time in our rooms but we started training [on Thursday] which was great, getting back out there and keeping our distance.”There’s nothing I can do about what happened in the winter,” he added. “It’s just the way it is, but I’m quite lucky my Crohn’s is under control. There are people who suffer a lot worse than me. I don’t feel sorry for myself, I want to play as much cricket as possible and stay fit and healthy.”The government’s initial advice had been for “extremely clinically vulnerable” people to shield at least until the end of June, a categorisation that had raised some doubts about Leach’s involvement in the series. However, rather than dwell on the nature of his illnesses in New Zealand and South Africa, Leach said that he and his consultants actually took comfort in the full extent of his recovery.”The medication that I’m on puts me a little bit of a higher risk, but actually what I came through in the winter suggests that I can fight things off quite well,” Leach said. “The fact that I am fit, and reasonably healthy apart from that, gives me a good chance as well.ALSO READ: Amar Virdi hoping to jump to front of England spin queue“I’ve been doing everything I need to do to stick by the rules, as has everyone else around me, but I’m not too nervous. I feel safe here in a bio-secure environment.”The ECB last week announced a clean bill of health for both England’s camp at the Ageas Bowl and West Indies’ at Emirates Old Trafford, with a total of 703 Covid tests among players, management, hotel staff and other key workers coming back as negative. And though the squad will continue to train in two groups of 15 for the time being, with little interaction even at mealtimes, those results mark another crucial step towards the return to competitive action.And for Leach, the first step will be to reclaim his role as England’s first-choice spinner. Dom Bess stepped up impressively in South Africa, while the return of Moeen Ali for the first time since last summer’s first Ashes Test at Edgbaston provides another big rival for what tends in England to be a solitary position.”We’ve got five really good spinners,” Leach said, with Matt Parkinson and Amar Virdi also involved in the 30-man squad. “It feels like there’s everything to play for. There’s lots of competition throughout the squad and spin is no different. It’s about us all working together to be at our best. It’s up to the selectors and not up to us who takes that spot, but I’m so glad to see Mo back as well. When he’s at his best, he’s an unbelievable player.”Jack Leach is one of five spinners in England’s 30-man training group•Getty Images

With 34 wickets at 29.02 in his ten Tests to date, Leach has proven to be a steady performer with the ball for England. However, he knows full well which of his feats have truly captured the public’s imagination to date – his twin innings of 92 against Ireland, scored as a nightwatchman opener after England had crumbled to 85 all out in their first innings at Lord’s last year, and of course, his crucial 1 not out in partnership with Ben Stokes in the Headingley thriller last summer.”I’m going to tell people in the pub when I’m older that I opened the batting for England, so I don’t care how I’m remembered,” he said. “I pride myself on my bowling, because that’s why I’ve been picked in the team – I want to be bowling teams out on the last day, and remembered for that – but obviously everyone wants to talk about Headingley, and it’ll be hard for people not to remember that.”I probably overthink at times, and that’s a mental thing that I’ve been working hard on. In my best moments, there hasn’t been a lot going through my mind. I think back to when I was out there with Stokes, and how focused I felt. It was a simple focus on what I was trying to do, and I want to apply that to my bowling as well – find that headspace where I can give my absolute best.””It is a little bit strange, but I guess those moments make you want to stay in the team,” he added. “I’ll be in the team longer if I bowl well, but if I keep getting remembered for batting innings, I’ll take that because I’ll be doing something right if I’m playing a lot.”

Malcolm Speed, the former Cricket Australia chief executive, believes the incumbent Kevin Roberts has “stumbled” in trying to explain how the game’s finances have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and also stressed that any chief executive must work to build respect rather than popularity.CA is now attempting to deal with state associations and the Australian Cricketers Association over contingencies for a significant loss of revenue next summer, while at the same time facing a raft of discontent among staff who were largely stood down on 20% of their usual pay at the end of last week, while executives and a handful of others remained on 80% pay.Roberts forecast to staff late last week that these issues would calm down after he had fronted the media to explain his decisions – endorsed by the CA board and its chairman Earl Eddings – but has since seen further leaks. Monday also brought the prospect that CA’s broadcast partner Seven West Media, owned by the billionaire Kerry Stokes, would look into the finer detail of its rights contract to seek reductions to its share of a six-year, A$1.18 billion rights deal alongside Fox Sports.ALSO READ: FAQ – What is happening at Cricket Australia?There is frustration within the game that much of this storm has been self-inflicted by the manner in which Roberts and CA put out the message that the governing body would be broke by August if it didn’t make deep cuts to its current budgets. This effectively created a cascade of uncertainty among players, states and commercial and broadcast partners while angering many staff with the way the financial pain was distributed – falling far more heavily on mid and lower tier staff than Roberts and his highly paid executive team, while saving only A$3 million.In addition to Seven and Fox other commercial partners, both current and prospective, have been preparing to potentially renegotiate their own deals with CA, which had already entered the off-season on the lookout for a fresh suite of sponsors. Many of the messages about the game’s apparent financial crisis and the potential impacts on next summer are now essentially being noted for use in talks over what current or future contracts should be worth.Speed, who served as chief executive of CA between 1997 and 2001 before he moved to the equivalent role at the ICC and was replaced by James Sutherland, said that in his mind Roberts had more explaining to do. He highlighted how the organisation was still perceived to have lost enormous amounts of money on the stock market when in fact it has seen an initial investment of A$22 million in 2012 rise to around A$45 million earlier this year before slipping back to A$36 million due to the coronavirus shock – all theoretical when nothing has been cashed out.Kevin Roberts said that CA had been left with little choice but to make major cost savings•Getty Images

“I think that’s been messy,” Speed told SEN Radio. “I saw an article saying cricket has lost millions of dollars on the stock market. Well, before it lost millions on the stock market it made millions of dollars on the stock market and its lost part of its profits, but it hasn’t lost anything yet because it hasn’t sold. That was an issue. I don’t think cricket’s financial issues have been explained very well, they’re quite complicated, and I think Kevin Roberts has stumbled through that and tried to clarify the issue, but it’s very difficult to follow.”It largely revolves around whether India can come to Australia in the latter part of the year, so October, November, December, and whether the World T20 tournament that’s scheduled to be played in Australia in October and November can go ahead. Increasingly as we move through this covid-19 situation, that seems increasingly unlikely that’s going to be able to happen.”There’s been lots of surprise, there seemed to be surprise from staff at CA that they were stood down, so they didn’t see that one coming. So I think there’s still some explaining to be done there. I’d be very surprised if Kevin lost his job as a result of this, but then again I’ve been surprised by a couple of the other things that have happened.”ALSO READ: Cricket Australia chief won’t back down on drastic staff cutsIn a subsequent round of interviews, Roberts has attempted to explain that CA’s cash reserves of around A$100 million in March were expected to go down to A$40 million by August and then jump back up to A$100 million and more once the next instalment from Seven and Fox Sports was paid, but now lack certainty about that August payment due to concerns about whether the India tour will go ahead. He has also stated that CA averages between A$35 million and A$40 million in cash going out to states, players and community cricket each month of the year. He has promised that both the states and the ACA will get the information they require.”Fair to say I think all of us want to feel informed when we’re making decisions, don’t we, in any aspect of life,” Roberts told ABC Radio. “So it’s really reasonable that our state and territory associations and the players’ association would be seeking as much information as possible. We’re committed to full transparency and ongoing updates, and were now getting ourselves in a position where we’ve got all of that together in a more coherent way, given the fast-moving nature of it.”Looking at CA’s relationship with its state association owners and the ACA, which has represented the players in maintaining a fixed percentage share of the game’s revenue since reaching an initial agreement during Speed’s time as chief executive, he said that it was imperative to command respect rather than seek popularity, adding that the next two or three weeks may tell the tale for Roberts. Australian sport has already witnessed the forced exits of Todd Greenberg (NRL) and Raelene Castle (Rugby Australia) as CEOs in recent days.”[The players and the states] are interesting stakeholders there. It comes back a bit about the role of the CEO in a major sport,” Speed said. “The chief executive’s not there as a cheerleader, he’s not there to be the inspirational leader of the sport, it’s a fairly methodical, logical not emotional process to keep the sport on track, and the piece of advice I give to budding chief executives is if you get the job, whatever you do, don’t try to be popular.”You’re going to have to make unpopular decisions, just try to achieve a level of respect, rather than a level of popularity. It’s a logical, intellectual exercise of running a very complex business in difficult times at the moment, so I’ll watch with interest what happens with cricket, because it’s a very important part of our sporting landscape. I think the next two or three weeks will be crucial.”

Saqib Mahmood, the young England seamer, would “look forward” to using a Kookaburra ball in County Championship fixtures if a round of games with the ball was introduced.Mahmood, who made his T20I debut on England’s New Zealand tour at the end of last year and was an unused member of the Test squad, said that he had “made good strides” learning how to bowl with a Kookaburra in the nets, and suggested that using the ball instead of a Dukes in domestic cricket would “bring in a different skillset to be successful with”.ALSO READ: Mahmood, Stone, Overton given ECB pace-bowling development contractsWhile there are no plans to introduce a round of games with a Kookaburra ball for the 2020 Championship season, it was discussed as an idea by the ECB’s cricket committee at the end of last year, and Ashley Giles, the managing director of England cricket, has described it as “an issue we should get our head around”.”It helps playing [home games] at Old Trafford,” Mahmood said at an England Lions training camp, “but if it did come across I’d look forward to it. It would bring in a different skillset to be successful with, rather than bowling a few dibbly-dobblies.”If we had that in the Championship for a couple of rounds, how would teams react? What kind of bowlers would they pick? Guys who haven’t had a look-in might start to get a look-in – teams will have to find a way to take 20 wickets.”Mahmood emphasised the difference in how the two balls behave with an example from the nets in New Zealand, when Paul Collingwood, one of England’s assistant coaches, bowled to him with both.”I had Colly bowl to me with a Dukes in New Zealand and I couldn’t hit it,” he said, “then when he had the Kookaburra it was a different ball game.”While he bowls at good pace by English standards, Mahmood has attracted attention in his fledgling career primarily due to his ability to make the ball reverse-swing, shining in last season’s One-Day Cup as one of the few bowlers able to make the white ball move off the straight at the end of an innings.He is set to make his ODI debut in South Africa next week, and was a late addition to the T20I squad as a replacement for the injured Jofra Archer. Following that series, he will travel to Australia to join up with the England Lions squad in time for the final two red-ball games of their tour, games in which he will hope to impress with half an eye on the 2021-22 Ashes series.Although Mahmood did not come close to a Test debut in New Zealand, he is sufficiently highly regarded by the ECB that he has become one of three seamers – along with Olly Stone and Craig Overton – handed a pace-bowling development contract, which will see him work closely with the England set-up in an attempt to help his progress.”I wasn’t involved in [the first Test at] Mount Maunganui,” he said, “so it was a case of watching how the New Zealand guys bowled – I was watching quite closely, seeing the fields they have, the tactics… looking how to bowl outside of England and with a Kookaburra.”I’d watch, then go into the nets, try things, and very quick I was picking up on reverse swing. That’s something which I can use as one of my strengths away from England and with the Kookaburra. It’s also [about] practising new skills for unresponsive pitches.”It was learning how best I can use [the Kookaburra]. I found in the nets if I bowled seam upright, it looked nice and pretty but I didn’t think I was very effective. So it was [a case of] pitching the ball up a bit, bringing both edges into the game. The ball I try to swing is the variation, rather than the stock ball as it is in England.”Saqib Mahmood’s ability to reverse swing the ball has earned him plenty of attention•Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Mahmood also heralded Darren Gough’s work as a short-term bowling consultant in New Zealand, where he spent two weeks with the England squad ahead of the Test series. He had developed a bad habit in his run-up during the T20I series, which had gone unnoticed, but Gough’s “fresh set of eyes” spotted the problem almost immediately.”As soon as I put that back into my training I felt good again and thought ‘God, I wish someone had told me this two weeks ago’,” he said. “Exposure to high-pressure situations can do things: you start to try harder and that can have a backward effect.”It was really good, because I obviously get reverse when I bowl but I wouldn’t know how to go about it as best as I could before I worked with Goughie. He told me how much he practised it, which I was nowhere near.”When you’re trying to reverse swing a ball back into a right-hander, your mind is telling you to push the ball, but you don’t want to do that. As easy as it sounds, it does take a while to get used to it. By the end of the trip I was doing ten balls at the end of every session and I actually got pretty good. I made good strides.”

The risk of matches being cancelled if a squad returns too many cases of Covid-19 remains real as the South African summer gets underway on Friday.The hosts have already been hit with two positive tests and have since been tested twice more, including a final round on Thursday morning. Their third test run revealed no new cases.Asked what would happen if the pre-match tests showed a significant number of cases, CSA’s chief medical officer, Dr Shuaib Manjra explained it could impact the schedule.”There probably won’t be a game. If you’ve got lots of positives you’ve got a quarantine context,” he said. “We cannot bring in a player from the outside without testing them at least twice before we bring them into this space. If a large group of people test positive we wouldn’t have adequate opportunity to bridge people into the bio-bubble. But we’ve got a squad of 24 so hopefully we can put a team together.”ALSO READ: Chaos swirls off field as South Africa welcome England for 2020 rematchThis is South Africa’s first experience of operating in a bio-secure environment as a national team (although several players have just returned from 11 weeks of doing it in the IPL) and will become their new-normal for the next six months. In a country where healthcare resources are challenged and where, as of this week, overall Coronavirus case numbers are going up, South African cricket will have to learn to box clever in the environment and with the welfare of their players, making this the most complicated season yet.Ahead of this series, the 24 players were tested before entering their base and one returned a positive result. He was kept out of the bubble and quarantined at a different venue. Two other players who were deemed to have come in close contact with the player were isolated and have since tested negative. A second player then tested positive a few days later, having already been in the bubble, and had to be removed. Both players will be retested and if negative, will rejoin the squad on Saturday, ending a tough period for both of them.”The players were devastated on receiving the news that they had tested positive for Covid,” Manjra said. “He (the first player) has taken quite a bit of strain in the sense that he’s been isolated in a hotel all alone and not participating in training.”There’s going to be a lag period in him coming to the squad and getting back to fitness because of injury concerns. If you’ve been in a hotel room for 10 days we can’t simply throw you onto the park. We’ve got to give at least another seven days to return to match fitness in order to consider him for any of the games. It takes a mental toll on him and all the others.”Manja described the period around testing as “stressful,” and the tests themselves as “uncomfortable,” but unavoidable. “Players don’t like the Covid test. We had a guy here doing the test on Monday and the players complained, so we had to try and get somebody else. Some of them are over enthusiastic, and not only get into your nose but into your sinuses and into your brain as well,” Manjra said. “It’s an uncomfortable test, but it’s very short.”And it will have to happen continuously as the summer goes on. Testing will be done again between the T20s and ODIs “to ensure the integrity of the bubble is maintained,” and before each Test match. South Africa have five scheduled for the summer.During the period in which they are in the bubble, players will have to continue to operate in small groups, whether at training or socially. “In the event that somebody tests positive we isolate a small group of people rather than the entire contact or non-contact group. That has a role to play in the dynamic of the team in terms of training, dining and socialising,” Manjra said.Those limitations, the administrative crises at CSA and the controversy over the way South African cricket has handled the Black Lives Movement have all made for an imperfect build up to the series but, Manjra believes, helped them become closer as a squad.”Preparing without distractions is an ideal situation, but in the real world you always have distractions. One of the things that allowed our team to build resilience is much of the kind work we’re doing in the background with the squad,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunity during lockdown for the players to interact with each other and get to know each other, and play out some of the dynamics we’ve been speaking about.”For us it’s not only about symbolism but about living particular experiences and sharing them — demonstrating what we believe in. The lockdown has a positive effect in those terms. Building resilience is not about removing distractions. It’s how you deal with those distractions, which will always be there.”Eoin Morgan, the England captain, was understanding of the challenges of keeping the sport’s bio-secure environments safe.”During the summer we did a magnificent job in not having any cases at all,” Morgan said. “We felt in a very privileged position, not to have to worry about the virus in our bubble, but this has presented different challenges.”South Africa have had two cases. One was off site, one was on the site, at the hotel, which presented a different challenge. To us, very similarly in the summer, if we had a case, we needed to be able to demonstrate that we could contain it to make every team, and every player within that bubble secure and safe, and South Africa seem to have done that so far.”Morgan also acknowledged the importance of the series being played at such a difficult time amid the pandemic, describing the role it could play in providing some relief and entertainment as “huge”.”As a sportsman, there are very few times you play sport or contribute to things when people actually really need it,” he said. “I went through this experience myself towards the back end of our first lockdown period when sport just started to be reintegrated into people’s TVs at home, and the smile it put on my face and the community that I live in was outstanding.”Given the circumstances, how bad they still are, particularly at home, it’s important for us to go out there and hopefully put on a bit of a show. Because it’s certainly a lot of different challenges at this moment in time but certainly sport can help relieve that a little bit.”

England opener Jason Roy is understood to have opted out of the 2020 IPL due to personal reasons. Roy, who represents Delhi Capitals, ESPNcricinfo has learned, will be replaced by Australian left-arm fast bowler Daniel Sams. The development came on the back of ECB announcing on Thursday that Roy had been ruled out of the T20I series against Pakistan due to a side strain he picked up this week.While Roy would become the second Englishman to opt out of IPL, Sams will be the second fast bowler Captials have hired after the auction. Recently South Africa fast bowler Anrich Nortje replaced England allrounder Chris Woakes.ALSO READ: Sams’ Big Bash surge propels quest for Australia honoursThis will be Sams’ first time in the IPL. The New South Wales quick made headlines for Sydney Thunder at the 2019-20 Big Bash League where he finished as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker. That performance earned him an international call-up for Australia’s white-ball tour of England in September. The tour, comprising three T20Is and three ODIs, will be played between September 4 and September 16, with the IPL starting three days later in the UAE.”The IPL is a huge platform for any cricketer, and back home, we all follow the tournament extremely closely every year,” Sams told the Delhi Capitals website. “I feel fortunate to be a part of it this year, and I’m thankful to the Delhi Capitals management for giving me this opportunity. I can’t wait to join the rest of the players in the UAE.”